All I got from this meme is that I want tacos. Or nachos. At this point, it really doesn’t matter. Either tacos or nachos will suit me just fine.

I remember there was a place down the road that served $2 tacos on Tuesdays. That was a good day when I could get 3 tacos for $6. Then it went away, and there was much sadness. They should bring back those $2 tacos.

The point is that sometimes in order to get through Monday, you need Taco Tuesday to look forward to. That’s all.

Today, I took a walk. I travelled down 8th Avenue South and took a left by Zanie’s Comedy Club. I then proceeded down the street and took a right, then walked down that road until it dead ended. There standing at the intersection is the future of The Church at Avenue South.

It’s the new (or more accurately, new-to-us) facility that will be the permanent home for Ave South. It’s the answer to the prayers of many people over a long period of time. Oh, and the timing could not have been any better with our lease running out in 12 months, just when we’ll be ready to move in after some renovations.

In my mind’s eye, I could see actual Vacation Bible School here. I could see families with their children excitedly heading for the playground. I can see people being introduced to Jesus for the first time here and finding the hope they’ve been searching for all their lives in all the wrong places.

I tried to take a picture of the entrance, but the sunlight washed it out. All you can see in the picture are the rays of sunlight drowning out the building. I’m hoping that’s the case for our future, that the light of God’s love and grace overwhelms everything else. I pray that we as a body of believers can love our neighbors and then get out of the way so that God can move in and get in the way.

Here begins a brand new chapter in the story of The Church at Avenue South.

My pastor talks all the time about how we typically spend an hour in worship on Sunday but that there are 167 other hours of the week where we live, work, and play. What are we doing with those hours?

I’ve been guilty of saving all my spirituality for Sunday and neglecting it the other six days of the week. A lot of us will profess belief in Jesus on Sunday but live like practical atheists the rest of the week, acting like God has no bearing on the decisions and choices we make.

If we ever want to grow in our faith and truly live out our calling, we have to do more than one hour a week. Back when I was playing piano, if all I ever practiced was one hour a week, I would never have gotten anywhere beyond playing one hesitant note at a time.

What living out our faith beyond Sunday looks like is sharing our faith with friends and family and getting involved in small groups that both encourage us and hold us accountable. It means finding people to mentor us and people whom we can mentor. It means spending time with God in His word and in prayer.

That might sound like Christianity 101, but I think a lot of us need reminding because we seem to have forgotten how to take it from head knowledge into hands and feet knowledge. I definitely include myself in that category.

Simply put, the more you make God a priority in your life, the more you will know Him and come to look more like Him. The more others will be drawn to the God they see in your life and not just the God you talk about.

In our all-consuming quest for numbers, we’ve made it all about accommodating instead of expositing. We’ve forgotten that the gospel is bad news before it is good news. The bad news is that we’re sinners who have fallen short of God’s glorious standard. That’s the part we typically leave out if we want packed pews and standing-room only seating.

The gospel isn’t a better morality. It’s not a different set of habits. It’s about once being dead and now alive. It’s about transformation. And it doesn’t end with a sinner’s prayer. Or it shouldn’t.

The gospel is for keeping you saved as much as it is getting you saved. The gospel is about making you not just a fan of Jesus but a follower, not just a body taking up space in a pew but a disciple who makes disciples.

We need to hear the preaching of ALL of the Word of God, not just the parts that make us feel good and that fit into our Americanized cultural version of Christianity. We need Romans 9 just as much as we need John 3:16.

If we change the message to fit in with the culture, we lose the only hope for redemption that made us unique. We might as well go home and close the church doors if we’re not going to be the church of the New Testament.

Maybe before we point fingers to how bad our culture is, we need to look in some mirrors to see how like them we really are. And then we need to pray for some revival.

For the uninformed, Wordle is a word game. Basically, you have to guess a five-letter word with no clues. It starts with you picking a random word. If a square is yellow, it means that you have the right letter but in the wrong place. If the square is green, you have the right letter in the right place. If the square remains grey, it means the letter is not correct.

I held out as long as I could, but I finally gave in to the madness. I’m addicted to Wordle, despite how it makes me feel dumb sometimes when I literally can’t think of any words. But it’s always worth it to guess the right word and watch all five squares turn green.

I suppose there’s an element of discipline in this game. I feel like I’m training my brain when I play Wordle. It’s all about figuring out a pattern, like using words that have lots of vowels and common consonants.

The trick is that you can only play once a day. Oh, and there’s not an app for it. The real Wordle game is a web-based game under the New York Times website. So, if you choose, you can embrace the madness and begin playing. Enter at your own risk.

Something about this setup appeals to me. Especially that comfortable bed. The old joke goes that I am good in bed — I could sleep for days. That’s what I feel in my soul after a whole week of getting out of bed at 5 am. I could almost sleep for 24 hours straight.

Maybe one day I can have a little setup like this. I don’t necessarily want anything big or fancy. I just want a place that suits me and that’s nice to come home to, like a haven or a sanctuary. Now all I need is to win a small lottery or something.

Brennan Manning writes, “One hundred years ago in the Deep South, the phrase ‘born again’ was seldom used. Rather, the words used to describe the breakthrough into a personal relationship with Jesus were, ‘I was seized by the power of a great affection.’ It was a deeply human and moving way to describe the initiative of God, the explosion within the human heart when Jesus became Lord of one’s personal and professional life. It lent new meaning to the old Russian proverb, ‘Those who have the disease called Jesus will never be cured.'”

I’m thankful every day that the security of my salvation doesn’t rest on my love for and faithfulness to God, because both of those waver from one day to the next. Rather, my hope lies in God’s love for and faithfulness to me, because His love and His faithfulness are as unchanging as He is. Throughout all my changing circumstances and moods, God is consistently good to me.

Sometimes, the smallest things make a big difference. The above picture is called an output shaft speedometer gear. I’m not a car guy, so I’m not really sure what all that means (or even if that’s the right name for the part). I know enough to know that without this little piece, my speedometer doesn’t work in my Jeep.

Being as my car is very nearly an antique, these parts are a bit difficult to find. If I can find it, I know a place that can fix my speedometer. But all it takes is that one missing piece.

You and I have at times probably felt small and insignificant. It seems like there are people who are smarter, better looking, more suave, more charismatic who get all the attention and we tend to work and serve in the shadows.

Yet if you take away a small and seemingly insignificant piece from a machine or an organization, it doesn’t work nearly as well. In God’s economy, even the smallest sparrow has meaning to God, and you and I are worth much more than sparrows.

You may never know the impact that you might have as you live what seems to you like an ordinary unspectacular life and do your small acts of service and faithfulness. Yet only God knows whose lives might be transformed and changed by your obedience at those times you thought no one was watching.

Trust me, a small thing can make a big difference. Just try spending a night in a tent with a mosquito.

“If God can use a crooked stick to amaze the Egyptian magicians,
If God can convict Peter with a rooster,
If God can make a donkey have a conversation,
…If God crushed the walls of Jericho with the sound of a horn,
THEN WHAT IS IMPOSSIBLE for anyone who is His child?”

God uses the ordinary to perform the extraordinary. God uses the mundane to create something magical. God takes the nobodies and nothings of this world over the most likely to succeed, best dressed, most influential to do a work that in time will get the attention of everybody.

Impossible simply means that I’m possible. Remember what a miracle you are. Remember that the fact that you exist, right here and right now, is in and of itself an impossibility made possible. Remember then that God is a specialist at turning impossible into the possible and the inconceivable into the inevitable. And remember that God is for you.

“How can a young person live a clean life?
By carefully reading the map of your Word.
I’m single-minded in pursuit of you;
don’t let me miss the road signs you’ve posted.
I’ve banked your promises in the vault of my heart
so I won’t sin myself bankrupt.
Be blessed, God;
train me in your ways of wise living.
I’ll transfer to my lips
all the counsel that comes from your mouth;
I delight far more in what you tell me about living
than in gathering a pile of riches.
I ponder every morsel of wisdom from you,
I attentively watch how you’ve done it.
I relish everything you’ve told me of life,
I won’t forget a word of it” (Psalm 119:9-16, The Message).

I read recently that if you’re filled with the God’s word, you won’t have room for Satan’s lies. I also remember what my first pastor wrote in my first ever Bible that he gave me — “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.” Another pastor said that if you have a Bible that’s falling apart, that usually means that your life isn’t.

All that to say that I should probably wrap this up and get back to reading my Bible. I definitely need to hear from God tonight.